The following is a list of lakes of Italy. The lakes of Italy can be distinguished, depending on their location within the national territory, between pre-alpine, north-western, Apennine, Sicilian and Sardinian, in addition to lagoons and coastal lakes. They are generally named after the surrounding towns and often their capacity has been increased with the construction of dams, in order to create large water reserves to be used for the production of electricity. There are more than 1000 lakes in Italy, the largest of which is Garda (370 km or 143 sq mi).
The pre-alpine lakes are the largest and most important because they constitute capacious basins, in which the alpine rivers restrain their impetus and purify their waters, depositing the transported materials. They also affect the local climate, mitigating it. Their waters fill the bottom of long valleys that flow into the Po Valley. They are deep valleys, carved by glaciers, which once descended to the foot of the Alpine chain. Generally, their emissary rivers then flow into the Po River.
